Ask Not Watt Your Country Can Do for YouAsk Watt You Can Do for Your Country

Here is Ted Sorenson’s ‘dream’ speech for the Democrat accepting his or her Party’s nomination in Denver August 28, 2008.

ALISON ON ALISON

You will recall that a few simple changes are saving Alison and her husband about $800 a year, or 45% of their Connecticut electric bill. Some of you were outraged that they have two homes; others were pleased they’ve cut their usage nearly in half.

I asked her to elaborate on some of her choices and their costs:

Why Powerstrips?
It’s a whole lot easier to flip one switch (usually with your foot) than to physically unplug the TV etc., which is the only other way to stop it from drawing power.

CFLs?
They’re more expensive, of course, but Connecticut has subsidized them heavily (and Costco and Walmart sell them). Not all CFL’s are created equal. The thing I care most about is the color of the light (the old CFL’s made everything look horrible). ED has good info on their website here.

Water Heater
The tankless hot water heater we bought was from Seisco. It cost about $700, but we get a couple hundred dollars off our taxes because of its energy efficiency, and there’s no sales tax on it in CT. It sits in the basement and actually takes much less space than our old one, as there’s no holding tank. Only downside: water flow is more limited, so we can’t all take showers at once, BUT it never runs out, so being the last one to shower doesn’t mean you’ll freeze. That seems like a good trade.

My husband says that if we could have, we’d have used a more-efficient propane model (would require a major amount of work in our existing house), and that Bosch makes the best of those.

Washing Machine
The washing machine is LG. If I remember correctly it was about $800 but there was a $150 rebate, again for energy efficiency. As a side benefit, it cleans better and more gently than the top-loader, and uses much less detergent.

Power Conditioner
We also removed a power conditioner, a big power drain that used to keep our rural end-of-the-line electric current from spiking and dropping wildly (bad for electronics). Now that everything’s on power strips, that’s less of a concern.

☞ It would be a drastic change to ask people to give up their second homes. But asking them to cut their energy consumption in half? Little or no sacrifice is involved; indeed, it’s a good investment.